


Safe and Sound

by HaneleHaralue



Series: ColdWestAllen Week 2016 [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014), The Host - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - The Host (Meyer) Fusion, Angst, Mentions of Clyde Mardon - Freeform, Mentions of Mark Mardon, Metas are Aliens, Minor Character Death, Multi, Possessed Barry, The Flash as his own character, This Sort of Became OT4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 13:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8670118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaneleHaralue/pseuds/HaneleHaralue
Summary: They were called Metas.By the time anyone realized they were here, it was too late. So many people had already been taken. Taken in waves, first people in places of influence, and then of accessibility, and then everyone else. A sea of faces, and every one of them had eyes with irises lined with rings of gold, the clearest sign that whoever they'd been before, they were something else now.[ColdWestAllen Week 2016 Day 4: Book/Movie/TV Fusion]





	

**Author's Note:**

> You don't really need to have read The Host to get this story. (Movie? What movie? There was never any movie adaptation, but wouldn't it be cool if there was one and it was GOOD? AHAHAHAHA.) But if you want, I put some hopefully helpful notes at the bottom you can check out.

_“Neither heaven nor hell can keep me apart from you"_ \- The Host, Stephanie Meyer

 

.

 

They were called Metas.

 

By the time anyone realized they were here, it was too late. So many people had already been taken. Taken in waves, first people in places of influence, and then of accessibility, and then everyone else. A sea of faces, and every one of them had eyes with irises lined with rings of gold, the clearest sign that whoever they'd been before, they were something else now. Once they had control, things began to change.

 

No hunger.

No violence.

No pollution.

No lies.

 

Peace, they said. They'd given them peace.

 

However, there were still some humans left. Pockets of survivors, underground and holding out against the metas. Because while they had given them peace, they'd taken something just as precious. What the metas didn't understand about humanity was that no matter what they tried to promise in return, try to take their freedom and humans would fight.

 

.

 

Flash dreamed.

 

At first he couldn't make sense of them. He'd seen a woman, a human woman. By their aesthetic standards, she was considered attractive. But he could swear how his host body reacted to the thought of her was beyond the standard human reaction to another attractive person. More than just the physiological - heart racing, face flushing. The dreams offered him so many visions of her, varied in their content and setting. But those soft, curving lips, bright, inquisitive eyes, and hands that looked gentle but strong. The sensation he felt when she wandered into his thoughts, his dreams, it made his host body ache.

 

It hadn't been until he'd started telling the seeker assigned to his case about the dreams that the voice went off in the back of his head. Whispers at first. _Stop. Stop stop stop._ But as he kept telling the seeker about the woman, who he was more sure was real and a rogue human, the more he heard the voice.

 

_Stop stop stop stop stop stop. Leave her alone! Stop, stop it!_

 

And Flash was sure he knew what the voice was. _Who_ the voice was. But even as he continued to tell the seeker investigating his case what he could about the woman and anything else he could recall, he didn't talk about the voice.

 

He didn't know why.

 

.

 

More things came to him than just the woman. Flash saw his host running. There were other men there too, human men, not metas. One was large with a shaved head. Another was an older man with a kind but tired face, whom he felt a pull towards that was similar to what he felt with the woman. And last was a man with calculating and cold blue eyes. For all that those eyes were cold, his host body felt aflame when those eyes were in full view.

 

He never had long to take in the men whenever he dreamed of them running. His focus was always pulled to what happened next. The older man had gotten injured. His host begged the other two men to get him out of there while he provided a distraction. The man with blue eyes argued violently against it, telling him they were all going to make it out safely together, but his host wouldn't give him any time to say more. There was a sudden press of lips to lips, and then his host turned and ran swiftly in the other direction as the others called after him.

 

Flash's host knew he was a fast runner. Faster than any of them. He had the best chance of getting away if he served as a distraction. And he was determined to get out of this if he could. There were people he had to take care of, people he had to return to. His host led the pursuers on a long chase through what looked to be an abandoned power plant. But eventually, the realization that they had him surrounded with no way out dawned on him. They were coming for him. Capture wasn't an option.

 

It was escape or die trying.

 

The meta would start shaking whenever he got the next part of this vision. This memory. As if he lived it, he saw his host scramble to flip switches, arrange wires in certain ways. And then he had settled in to wait.

 

"Please, my name is Blackout, we do not want to hurt you. Just come with us," one of the seekers who had been chasing him tried.

 

But his host refused listen, thinking only of the man with blue eyes and the woman. Flash cried out in vain every time he had to witness the man throwing one last switch, begging him not to hurt himself or the other metas. It never worked. The switch was flipped, and the room was bathed in light and searing electricity. He heard his host scream in concert with the seekers in the room with him as they were electrocuted.

 

.

 

Unfortunately, the memory of the day his host was acquired was one of the few that the seeker - his seeker, he'd come to think of him - was most interested in.

 

"Go over that last part again," Seeker Reverse pressed.

 

"Respectfully," the healer, Healer Frost, cut in, "I do not think we should continue. Can you not see how affected he is remembering something so traumatic? He needs to rest."

 

"Flash is one of the strongest and most traveled of us, strong enough to match this human. If anyone can find something in its memories, it is him," the seeker insisted, those intent pale eyes never having wavered from his face, "Is that not right?"

 

"I-" He looked down at his hands in his lap and then back up with a nod. "Yes."

 

Healer Frost looked as if she wanted to protest, something close to irritation creeping into her expression. But she remained silent.

 

"Excellent. Now, Flash, again."

 

With wet cheeks and shaking hands, he did as he was asked, recounting again the last horrific moments his host experienced. As he came to the last part once more, he focused in the thoughts of the man and woman, of what had been so important to protect. That was when the voice started up once more, begging.

 

_You can't do this. Don't tell them. Please, don't tell them._

 

Ignoring the voice, he tried to latch onto something, anything that could help the seeker. And then, among all of those panicked thoughts and feelings, he could hear his host saying one last thing as he threw the switch. " _Iris. Len. I'm sorry. I love you."_ He could sense the desperation in the voice building, almost causing his throat to close, but he forced his next words out.

 

"The woman he thinks of, her name is Iris. One of the humans he was with on the night of his acquisition, his name is Len," Flash told him, along with other details he could recollect of the two.

 

 _No. How could you do that?_ A wave of rage and devastation crashed over him, setting off the tears and shaking afresh. _I hate you._

 

"Good," Seeker Reverse almost purred out, "Very good, Flash."

 

.

 

Ever since telling the seeker the names of the woman and the blue eyed man, the voice had made giving him hell its personal mission. Some days, the meta didn't understand why he refused to tell anyone about the voice. He always told himself that the voice was somewhat useful, unintentionally providing information that could help the investigation into the other rogue humans. Or that if he told them, it would be like showing weakness, as if he couldn't handle this host. Like Seeker Reverse said, he was one of the most traveled metas. Not once had he ever had a host he was unable to handle.

 

That was what now brought him to standing in front of a mirror, staring into the face of his host. No, not his host's face, his face now.

 

_Keep telling yourself that, buddy._

 

Flash started, before eyeing the reflection and saying, "Bartholomew?"

 

 _It's Barry!_ the voice rushed to correct, _The first time we talk and that's what you call me?_

 

"I could have gone without talking at all."

 

_I'll stop talking when you stop telling things to that seeker._

 

A frown tugged at his lips.

 

"I can't do that. I need to help with the investigation."

 

 _No you don't_ . _You'll just be killing anyone you turn in,_ Barry argued, which had the meta flinching.

 

"We don't kill," he insisted, "We're just trying to help you."

 

There was laughter in his head, but it sounded off somehow.

 

 _No, you're right,_ his host agreed with a tone that sounded like he had tasted something bad, _What you do is worse than just killing us. And all in the name of helping._

 

Against his will, the meta could feel something hot and sick rise up in him at the words. Anger, he deduced, and immediately felt ashamed. That was a bad human emotion. It too often led to violence.

 

_Being human means having all of the emotions, not just the good ones._

 

"But wouldn't it be better not being so angry? Or sad? To just be content, like you were with Iris and Len?" There was a shifting in his head. "You could have that, you know. If you help us find them, they could be here too."

 

 _I would never let you do that to them!_ Barry yelled in their head, _You don't know anything about me if you think that I would._

 

The memory of the night at the power plant seared across his thoughts. He may not know his host very well, but he could at least say he knew the lengths the man was willing to go to protect his loved ones. In a deeper part of himself that he wanted to keep from Seeker Reverse, Healer Frost, and even from Barry, was the knowledge that the more he learned, the more he understood why the man had done it.

 

And he wasn't even sure anymore if it was completely wrong.

 

.

 

After that first conversation, there were many more to come. Barry was always picking at him to see things his way, just as Flash tried the same. His host's dark, self deprecating humor and dissent should have disturbed him more, but he found that he enjoyed their talks more as time went on. It was a pleasurable challenge, he decided. Catching his constant companion gush about the medical and scientific advances the metas had brought Earth was amusing. However, it was also troubling when when the human said things that stuck with him days and weeks on. Things that shook him down to the core.

 

At first it started with Iris and Len. That came to a head when is host had snapped at him for asking yet another question about them, saying he wasn't going to give up anything that would get them caught. That was when he realized that his curiosity about them was less about information gathering and more for learning about these people who made their heart race and chest ache. And because the man had equal access to his thoughts, he figured out that the meta might have become more than just interested in them.

 

 _A crush_ , his host teased.

 

That unleashed a floodgate of teasing and memories shared between them about the woman and man. The more it came up, the more Flash couldn't stop thinking about it. A lifetime of sweet moments shared between Barry and Iris growing up. Brief but intense glimpses of time stolen with Len while hiding out, trying to find somewhere safe together. Love, lust, longing. New words for his vocabulary. His host felt all of it for those two humans. Living it vicariously made it hard not to feel it, too.

 

And the man knew that.

 

Which must have been why he started seeing memories of one of the other men who had been there on the night his host had been taken. It had been a veritable flood of memories concerning the man who he came to realize was the man's father. He'd been the reason why Barry and Iris had been separated in the first place when the metas had begun taking the planet, on the run with prison escapees of all people instead of the woman he loved. Henry Allen was another person his host loved with all of himself, and would die for. From boy to man, he'd loved his father and stayed loyal to the man even when he'd been convicted of the murder of his mother and sent to prison.

 

Flash was horrified by the injustice and tragedy of it.

 

 _Don't you see?_ the human tried, _Don't you see wrong it is, what you are doing to us? You're holding all of us prison in our own minds._

 

"But we're trying to save you from yourselves..." the meta protested weakly.

 

He heard a sigh, and then the other voice said, _We deserve the right to choose how we want to be saved._

 

And once upon a time the being from another world may have argued that point. If they refused to save themselves and their planet, why should humans be allowed to make their own decisions? There were better, kinder ways of living. The metas were trying to give their species that.

 

But maybe.

 

Maybe this wasn't better or kinder. For them.

 

Barry had given him a choice when he revealed the identity of his father. A choice to turn over the man his host had sacrificed everything for to give his freedom. And maybe another choice, one he wasn't ready to contemplate yet. But he wouldn't have much time to choose. His next meeting with Seeker Reverse was approaching, and he would have to decide then.

 

.

 

All too soon, he found himself sat across from his seeker and healer, re-examining his host's memories. For all that he tried, he could not focus on the discussion, absently answering questions about Iris and Len when asked. But then, something shifted when the seeker sat up and leaned forward to ask a question.

 

"Have you heard about the Mardons?"

 

While Flash, and Barry from the back of his mind, stared blankly back at him, Healer Frost froze and then shot a true glare at her meta colleague.

 

"It is not appropriate to discuss that here," she chided with some heat in her voice.

 

"Oh, I think it is." Seeker Reverse's eyes cut to him. "So have you heard of the Mardons, Flash?"

 

"No?" he answered warily.

 

"Clyde and Mark Mardon. Two brothers who had avoided the initial colonization here. They evaded capture until eventually they were sloppy stealing supplies. The seekers pursuing them were forced to eliminate Clyde when killed one seeker and tried to kill another."

 

A bolt of fear ran through Flash, and he wasn't whether it originated from him or Barry.

 

 _Both of us,_ his host voiced, quiet and strained.

 

"Seeker Reverse!" the healer hissed.

 

"Mark, however, was successfully apprehended," the seeker continued on as if she hadn't objected, "A meta known as Weather was placed in him. And at first, Weather adjusted well after awakening. But then his acquaintances started observing oddities in his behavior. He wouldn't report for his assigned vocation. He refused to socialize with any fellow metas, and when he did, he demonstrated dysfunctional communication patterns. It was too late before anyone realized what was going on."

 

"What was going on?"

 

Barry's law enforcement background was already making them positive they weren't going to like the answer.

 

"His host, Mark Mardon, was regaining control. Before he was taken, Mark was a dangerous criminal and had an unhealthily codependent relationship with his brother. Once the host had successfully gotten control over Weather, he went after the seekers who had ended his brother's life. He was stopped before he could hurt anyone and Weather was safely removed." That pale gaze held his own. "But it was agreed upon that the host should be permanently retired after the removal."

 

Both Flash and Barry were aghast, and the meta couldn't help but exclaim, "They killed Mark?"

 

"Kill is too strong a word," the healer jumped in, speaking gently as if to comfort him, "I'm sorry listening to that story was so distressing. If it helps, the host was in a lot of pain and unsuited for matching with a new meta. It was kinder to ease his suffering."

 

She reached out to touch his hand, and it took everything not to flinch. In the back of their head, his human companion was screaming. He felt like he was, too.

 

"I understand," was the only thing he could manage without lying.

 

Seeker Reverse's eyes remained on him, observing closely.

 

.

 

His host watched with confusion was he tore through the apartment assigned to him after his insertion. He couldn't afford to stop and explain, even to think clearly about what he was trying to do. All he knew was that he needed to do this. Wasting time wasn't an option.

 

_Flash._

 

"Not now," he muttered to the human.

 

_Flash!_

 

"What?" he demanded, stopping and stepping away from the backpack he'd started stuffing clothing into.

 

"Hello?" he heard someone say from behind him, which had him whirling around to address them.

 

"Vibe!" he exclaimed, quickly directing a shaky smile at his neighbor, "Hello, what are you doing here?"

 

"Your door was open," the shorter meta answered him with a grin, "I wanted to ask if you would like to watch some more historic footage?"

 

In the back of his head, Barry perked up in interest. "Historic footage" was their code for Star Trek. Both of their hosts had been fans of the human television series. Most human entertainment had been seized and eliminated due to its disturbingly unsavory content, but some had been saved for historical as well as technological purposes. Only historians or builders were allowed access to them, but luckily the other meta's vocation was builder. Flash and his human companion had heard the familiar dialogue through the wall and invited themselves over. It had been the beginning of a pleasant friendship between the two metas, bonding over their host's mutual interests and commenting on the scientific inaccuracies of the viewing material.

 

On any other day, he would have been happy to accept Vibe's offer, but now wasn't that day. Not after what his seeker had said.

 

"Sorry, I don't think I have time for that." A thought occurred to him. "But I uh, do have something I might need your help with?"

 

"I would be happy to help." The other meta beamed at him. "So what do you need?"

 

.

 

There was emotion flooding their shared mind space as Flash packed the last of the gadgets and equipment his neighbor had cheerfully offered up to them when asked for it. He'd told the other meta it was for a hiking trip, unable to keep the unease from his face as he'd said that. Thankfully, it had gone unnoticed.

 

 _You lied to Vibe,_ Barry murmured.

 

"I did."

 

_You didn't tell the seeker about my Dad._

 

"I didn't."

 

_You're running._

 

"I am."

 

 _Why?_ his host asked, voice soft and childlike with confusion.

 

The meta paused and looked into the nearest reflective surface, staring into the man's eyes,  gold rings circling his irises.

 

"I'm not going to let them kill you Barry," he answered, trying to project the feeling of determination and protectiveness towards the man, "I can't."

 

 _Flash..._ Awe tinted the utterance of his name.

 

"So we need to get out of here. I don't care where we go, just as long as it's far away from Seeker Reverse."

 

 _I-_ His host started. After a beat, he started again. _I have an idea about where to start heading._

 

.

 

Months ago, maybe even weeks, Flash would have been bothered by the fact that Barry had been keeping something like this a secret. But all things considered, it had probably been for the best. He would have turned information like this over to his seeker in a heartbeat back then. Now, he was grateful that the man had finally chosen to disclose everything at this point in time.

 

With a destination in mind, they'd booked a flight from Missouri to California and then drove north to Humboldt Redwoods State Park to maintain the appearance of a hiking vacation. Once there, the meta staged the perfect accident with his host's help. Let the seekers who came to investigate think that his car went over the edge and that whatever predators in the area had dragged him off. There was enough evidence there to confirm it, only a CSI with Barry's level of experience would see something else.

 

Knowing his fellow metas, they wouldn't even consider the possibility of a deception.

 

The two of them would have to go on an actual hike down the coast in order to make it to where they were heading. Flash had to steel himself for the trip, which would be almost two days long by foot. His host's body, while fit from the running he did for exercise, was not fully ready for the trek they would be undergoing through the wilderness and the elements. By the end of the first night, their entire body was aching and frighteningly cold. The human had worriedly explained that if they weren't careful, they could develop hypothermia.

 

 _Just hang in there,_ Barry kept saying him, _You said you weren't going to let me die, right? So we need to make it. That way you can meet Iris, and Len, and my Dad. Just keep going buddy. You can make it._

 

After a while, he could barely follow what the human kept saying to him. His voice felt far away as he kept walking, only growing more tired and cold. Eventually, he made it to the city limits of their destination, but he was on his last legs. Faintly, he could hear his host directing him to where they needed to be. But it was dark, and there were rocks, and his foot slipped.

 

He passed out before he even hit the ground.

 

.

 

There was a group of voices nearby as he started to wake. Eyes fluttering open, Flash slowly turned his head so he could figure out what was going on around them.

 

 _We're in a cell,_ Barry informed him.

 

The meta was quick to agree with that assessment. They'd been laid out on the cot of a small, poorly lit cell with three cement walls and one made of bars. Looking out into the hall, he could feel both his host and himself jolt in shock when they saw who was standing there. The man was quick to identify them all.

 

Joe West. Iris's dad, and Barry's own foster father.

Oliver Queen. An acquaintance to Barry.

Henry Allen...

 

No extra information needed there. Both of them knew exactly who he was. The human was sobbing with relief in the back of their mind at the sight of him, alive and for once on the opposite side of bars. Flash let his host's emotions wash over him, flicking through all of the memories that had been shared with him concerning these three.

 

However, his vicarious excitement was dashed when Oliver opened his mouth to say, "It's awake."

 

He flinched, but Barry was too overcome to care about the harsh words. The meta couldn't begin to explain how it happened, but in the next moment it was as if the human had hijacked the ability to control their body just for a bit. They were on their feet and rushing to the bars for his father, tears streaking down their face.

 

"You made it, you're alive," came tumbling out of their lips in a babble as they kept reaching for Henry, "We found you. We found you."

 

Just as quickly, they were shoved forcefully back by the youngest of the three men. Joe had moved to stand protectively in front of the elder Allen, a look of anguish on his face. In contrast, Oliver was blank of everything except the cool rage in his eyes.

 

"'We'?" he demanded in a low snarl, "Did you lead more of them to us?"

 

"No!" Flash exclaimed, "I didn't, I wouldn't."

 

"You're one of them." It was Joe who spoke this time, voice faintly accusing. "Of course you would."

 

.

 

They left him after that. The meta had a hard time sitting for hours with the plethora of thoughts and feelings Barry was pumping out. Somehow the human was both brilliantly happy at seeing his father and crushingly disappointed that they'd been locked up in the cell. But he still seemed to be able to hope that maybe they'd convince the humans that they hadn't come to hurt them. On the other side, Flash was having a hard time being as optimistic. He'd seen in the man how terrified of metas humans were, and the violent lengths they'd go to stay out of their hands. How could they see him as anything other than a threat like his companions once had?

 

 _You're not scary though,_ his host told him, _There's so much good in you._

 

A snort erupted out of them.

 

"You tell that to everyone?" the meta joked, pushing a memory of the man saying almost the same exact thing to Len once upon a time.

 

_Only when I mean it._

 

The words were startlingly earnest, and tinged with that ever present longing attached to thoughts of the other man. But the moment was brought to a halt at the sound of a door opening and closing at the end of the hall. With baited breath, they waited until whoever it was stood right in front of his cell. Their eyes fell upon Henry Allen for the second time since being put in that cell, the man holding a tray of food.

 

"You won't be hurt while you're here," the older man told them, his gaze heavy on them, "That said, they'll interrogate you during your indefinite stay."

 

"That's more than fair. I'm... surprised that they didn't decide something worse."

 

"Trust me, they wanted to. But they saw reason in the end," his host's father said, a deep sadness settling in his expression before he held the tray of food out through the hole in the bars meant for it, "Here."

 

Carefully,  Flash rose and walked over to receive it, whispering, "Thank you."

 

"You're welcome, son," Henry responded.

 

As one, they flinched back, almost dropping the tray.

 

"D-" That was as far as anything out out of their mouth before the meta firmly locked it down.

 

The older man let out a sigh of what seemed like disappointment before looking away and turning to leave. His host was screaming, frustrated and furious, at being denied the chance to speak to his father. Numb, he sat down against the wall of their cell and began to mechanically eat.

 

"Sorry Barry. I just can't hope they'll believe like you do."

 

.

 

Just like Henry had told them, they weren't harmed but at least once every day for the next week, Oliver and sometimes Joe would come and interrogate him. Everyday, they asked the same questions.

 

How did he know about the Foundry? (Barry had glimpsed the secret blueprints to a hidden bunker on the outskirts of Star City while investigating Oliver during an _eventful_ business trip in Central City years back.)

 

Who had he told about it? (Only Iris and his father. No one else.)

 

Why had he come? (He wanted to.)

 

Was he a seeker? (No.)

 

Had he led any seekers to them? (No.)

 

Had he been in contact with any seekers? (Yes, for the investigation, but he had chosen not to aid them anymore.)

 

Why did he choose to stop helping with the investigation? (He didn't want to.)

 

The questions went on, and the more they focused on his motivations for seeking them out, the harder it got to answer without saying that he was doing this for Barry. That only left them unsatisfied and angrier each time. It was hard on Flash. He was completely unprepared for the level of verbal abuse they subjected him to. Metas never rose their voices against one another in anger, not that they ever got angry to begin with. The men were merciless as they yelled at him for hours at a time, slinging insults and slurs against his kind as easy as commenting on the weather. Some days, it felt that they were just on the edge of inflicting violence on hims.

 

At the end of every encounter, the meta was left a shivering wreck. His host tried to help, even if he was still frustrated with his refusal to tell them the truth, murmuring soft reassurances and soothing words to him in the time following. Daily visits from Henry did a lot to calm him as well. The man was always the one to bring him his meals twice a day. And each time, he insisted on staying to talk. They'd talk about anything, from the food, to the man's work in the Foundry, to what he should call the meta.

 

His host hung on every word out of his father's mouth during his visits. It was hard not to let the emotions overwhelm him, too. Tears would drip down their cheeks without abandon sometimes, and he was hard pressed to explain them away to the doctor.

 

But when it eventually got to be too much for him, he finally asked the one question he'd been dying to since he'd woken up there.

 

"Are they here?"

 

To his relief, Henry didn't pretend to not know what he was asking, and simply answered, "Yes."

 

_They're here. They're here. They're here._

 

A sob slipped through their lips.

 

"Do they know I'm here?"

 

"No." It might have been a trick of the light, but his host's father looked regretful. "Joe didn't want Iris seeing you."

 

"Yeah." Flash swallowed harshly on his and his host's bitterness. "No, I get it. I wouldn't want her to see Barry like this. Either of them."

 

Even as desperate as he was to see his loved ones, for people to know he was there, even Barry could agree that the sight of gold in his eyes would break their hearts.

 

.

 

As certain as the meta had been that Iris and Len would never know he was there, he soon found himself with an unexpected visitor.

 

Iris West stood in front of his cell, arms crossed and beautiful face blank.

 

_Iris Iris Iris._

 

"You shouldn't be here," Flash told her, pressing himself into the the farthest corner of his prison even his host begged him to get closer.

 

"No one decides for me what I should and shouldn't do," she snapped back at him.

 

Her words were angry, but her bright eyes were tired and red. He turned to face the wall so that she wouldn't have to see the rings in his. Barry cried out at the loss.

 

"I'm sorry."

 

After a stretch of silence, she said, "He promised he'd come back."

 

"I'm sorry he didn't."

 

"I don't know about that," she murmured, "You're here."

 

"I am," he corrected, "He isn't."

 

It was quiet again for a long time. He would have believed she'd gone if not for the lack of the sound of the door down the hallway opening and shutting.

 

"I promised myself," came her voice again, "That if I ever saw him again, I'd tell Barry I loved him."

 

This time, Flash didn't try to stop his host from seizing a bit of control to say, "He loved you too Iris. So much."

 

He steeled himself against the urge to look when he heard a pronounced hitch in her breath and a soft sniffle. The breath he'd been holding eased out of him at the sound of her receding footsteps, and the click of the door.

 

.

 

To Barry's and his joy and torment, Iris joined Henry, Joe, and Oliver on the roster of his regular visitors. This development was met with horror on her father's part, and the meta and host had ended up uncomfortable audience to a shouting match between the two the next time she came. She'd laid into him about keeping Flash a secret from her, tearing down his arguments about trying to keep her safe.

 

If he thought it had been hard trying to hide the truth about Barry from the others, nothing could have prepared him for hiding it from her. This was the woman who had been his host's best friend and greatest confidante. That trust and love the man had for her was hard to combat. Every time they talked, he caught himself almost giving away some sign that he wasn't the only one in their mind.

 

"So what's with meta names, Flash?" she asked this time from where she was sat leaned against the bars of his cell, "They're all so different and bizarre. Is there some kind of system to it?"

 

"We're given names from each world we've lived on," he explained to her, "Some stay with us more than others. For example, on one world I was called Scarlet Streak, and on another I was Blur. But Flash, short for Flash Across the Worlds, is the one I identify with most."

 

"Why is that?"

 

"Maybe because it fits? I have traveled to more worlds than anyone else my kind." He shrugged with a smile. "And by human standards, Flash is considered a cool name."

 

"I see." She fidgeted with her hands for a bit before turning her gaze on him. "Have there been any worlds where the host species was still aware even after your kind had been inserted?"

 

Mouth dry, he answered, "Yes. There were some host species that were capable of consciousness after insertion."

 

"What about humans?" she questioned, though all Flash heard was, _What about Barry?_

 

 _Tell her_ , his human companion demanded.

 

"No," the meta told both of them, hit with waves of disappointment on either end, "Humans aren't capable of consciousness or control."

 

The lie burned at him just as much as remember what had happened to the Mardons did. He looked away so he wasn't forced to see the effect his words had on Iris. There was a hum of irritation coming from his host's corner of their mind.

 

 _Liar_.

 

All he could do was nod in agreement to that statement as the woman stiffly changed the subject.

 

.

 

There was a hand on his mouth. The drowsiness of sleep gave way to panic as Flash flailed. It did him no good, their assailant had settled their greater bulk on him to keep him from escaping. His mind raced, but all he could think about was that it was a surprise something like this hadn't happened sooner. And that he hoped it wasn't Henry or Iris who would find Barry's body the next day.

 

It was Barry's voice that cut through all of it, with an exclaim of, _Len!_

 

The fight went out of the meta as he peered up into blue eyes, still brilliant even in the dark. They'd both wondered, after Iris had first started showing up, if the person who had the other half of Barry's heart would ever pay him a visit as well. Now, here he was. Likely snuck right past whoever was supposed to be guarding him and picked the lock on his door to get this far.

 

"Don't scream," the man ordered.

 

Flash nodded. The hand slid away from the lower half of his face to rest on the side of his neck.

 

"Len."

 

"Had to see it for myself," the man said staring down at him.

 

At those words, the meta tried to turn his head so that the other man wasn't looking right at his face. Right at his eyes. But he wasn't allowed that when the hand on his neck forced his head back straight and center. He tried closing his eyes, but even that was halted by a sharp, "Don't."

 

One word from Len seemed to have just as much power over him as it had Barry.

 

"Why are you here?" he finally asked, not knowing what else to do.

 

"I could ask you the same thing. Queen and West seem to think you're some kind of seeker, here to bring us all in." The man leant in until there was almost no space left between. "But Iris and Henry, they seem convinced there's more to it than that."

 

A sigh slipped out even as his host perked up.

 

"They're wrong."

 

"Who? Queen and West?" Blue eyes narrowed. "Or Iris and Henry?"

 

"All of them," Flash answered with a wince, feeling his human mentally reprimand him, "I am not a seeker."

 

"Here's the thing," Len said while pushing himself away, leaving both the meta and host to mourn the loss of contact, "I'm pretty good at telling when people lie, so catching meta tells is child's play because your kind can't lie worth a damn. Not even the seekers."

 

Breath stuttering, the meta repeated, "I'm not a seeker. I'm not lying."

 

"You're telling the truth about not being a seeker." A tired smirk tugged at the other man's lips. "But you're also lying about not lying."

 

 _He has you there,_ Barry told him with delight, _Between him and Iris, you can't keep me secret for much longer._

 

Mouth shut tight and body tensed, Flash just glared up at the other man.

 

"I'm gonna figure out what you're hiding." Len moved for the door to his cell. "Just wait."

 

And he'd blame it on Barry's influence after, but his only response to that was to raise his arms up at his sides in a 'come at me' gesture.

 

_Ooh, you're asking for it._

 

.

 

Just like that, his pool of visitors gained another member. Although, where the others came like clockwork for interrogations, meal times, and Q&As about metas, Len came at random times to invade his cell and talk. Based on his host's memories of the man, it was likely he was trying to sneak his visits around the guard rotations Oliver and Joe threatened him with if he ever thought about escaping. Both he and his human agreed that would be very much in line with what they knew from the memories of him.

 

While talks with him were infinitely better than his ones with the leader of the Foundry and his host's foster father, they still left him just as off kilter. The man hadn't been kidding when he said that he was going to figure out what he was hiding. He'd come at him sideways, talking to him a lot like how Iris and Henry did at the start. But where the other two always backed off, he kept on picking at the parts Flash faltered at.

 

"Is Barry in there?" he'd ask each time.

 

Sometimes the only thing he could do to keep from slipping was to refuse to speak and wait for the man to leave.

 

 _Why do you keep doing this to us?_ Barry would sigh, _We're finally here with them with nowhere else to go, and you're still running._

 

There was the irony. That the human could be so brutally honest while all he could do these days was lie. And for what? He wasn't so sure anymore why he was still keeping this up. He was just so tired of this. So tired.

 

.

 

Iris and Len were standing in front of his cell. Together.

 

 _Are we hallucinating?_ his host asked, mentally slapping at Flash to get his attention.

 

Shaking his head in response, the meta sat up a little straighter.

 

The other man had already gotten to his knees at the door, going through the motions of picking the lock. It was a slow process, the man narrating his actions as he went. He was doing it for Iris, they realized as one. It had him flashing back to memories of when Barry been on the run with the man and his father. How once upon a time it had been him in his best friend's place, learning lock picking from the other man. The intense deja vu hit them just as hard as the sudden revelation of what it meant.

 

When he'd gone to his death that night at the power plant so long ago, his host had hoped that both of them could go on without him and be happy. That with one another Joe and Iris would heal, just like how Len could do the same with his partner and his sister once he found her. Neither meta nor human could have guessed that after both ended up at the Foundry, they'd find each other. But they could see it now, with both of them there. The casual intimacy of the moment, how the woman leant into his space to listen with a hand on his shoulder and the man glanced up to offer her soft smiles of encouragement.

 

It was hard to tell where his emotions ended and Barry's began. They were such a mess of shock, and confusion, and relief, and misery. How was it possible to want something, to have that hope fulfilled and more, and still feel as if something had been lost? That ache they'd come to associate with thoughts of Iris and Len had doubled, tripled, like a battering ram had been taken to their chest.

 

Flash couldn't understand why but he was crying so hard. Long shuddering sobs took his breath as floods of tears blurred his vision. He heard the man and the woman come in and sit next to him on either side, bodies pressed right against his. His host was there, his comforting presence curling around him.

 

 _It's okay. It's gonna be okay,_ the voice crooned to him over and over until he started to believe it.

 

.

 

There was no way of telling how long all three humans sat with him, gently soothing him until he was calm. They stayed until his eyes were dry and the hiccups and whimpers died away. It was just him and Barry, and Iris and Len, and for once no one was pressing him to give up the last secrets he'd been holding onto. He'd been trying so desperately to protect his host and himself, and everyone else as well. But who was he really protecting anymore?

 

"All I wanted," he started quietly, "Was to save Barry."

 

Said man stirred, silent but restless in their mind.

 

The fingers carding through his host's hair stilled as the woman they belonged to echoed, "Save Barry?"

 

"They would have guessed eventually that he was still there, talking to me. Telling me not to give away information on you. On Henry. On this place." As one, he and his host shivered. "They would have taken me out and put someone else in. Once they had taken what they needed from him, and they would have eliminated him for being an unsuitable host."

 

A soft, keening noise slipped out of Iris at their right. To their left, Len growled as his arm around them tightened.

 

"Metas are supposed to save lives, make them better. So I decided to save him." He swallowed dryly. "Except now  I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been better to stay away. All I've done is hurt all three of you because I can't give him back to you. Not really."

 

_Oh Flash._

 

"And what does Barry have to say about that?" the man at their side asked.

 

"He doesn't like being held prisoner in his own mind," the meta muttered, only to get a poke to his left side and a non verbal reprimand from within.

 

"You're doing it again. Telling the truth but not all of it."

 

In the back of his head, his host dictated while Flash spoke his words aloud, "He's sad that he can't be with both of you, but he's glad he has the chance to just be here and know that you're safe. He's grateful, that I gave him that. Somehow, he doesn't hate me. At least not anymore. He says that... that he's proud of me. That I'm a hero."

 

Silence hung in the air for a long beat, until it was cut by the sounds of gasping laughter in stereo.

 

"Aw hell," Len chuckled out, "He hit you with one of his speeches. I bet he hits you with them  all the time in there."

 

Iris had her face pressed into his neck, wheezing as she said, "That is just so Barry."

 

His amusement at his host's indignation was swept away when Iris leaned over and pressed her lips to theirs. All thought process was completely wiped out when Len darted in just as quick to steal a kiss of his own.

 

"What-?" _What-?_

 

"We're not going to give up on Barry," the woman told him, "It doesn't matter if he's stuck in there with you."

 

"We'll have him anyway we can," the other man tells them, before locking his gaze with their own, "Can you let us try to have this too, Flash?"

 

It was painful, the amount of hope he was being hit with. Shining out through their eyes. Pulsing from his host's corner of their mind. From within himself, too. He loved them, all three of them, so much for a while now and he'd already come to terms with the fact that there was almost nothing he wouldn't do for them to be safe and happy. Even defy his own nature. So what they were asking for now? For them, he could try.

 

"Yeah," he finally said, with one decisive nod, "Yeah, I can."

**Author's Note:**

> The Host is a sci-fi novel written by Stephanie Meyer (I'm SM trash for this book). A species of aliens called Souls invade the earth, occupy it by possessing humans as their hosts, and try to "fix" the planet. Throw in underground human resistance, human hosts gaining consciousness, and an angsty interspecies love triangle/square, and that's the story.
> 
> Metas - Souls  
> Seekers: aliens who hunt rogue humans  
> Italicized text - Barry's thoughts
> 
> There will also be a sequel written later that wraps this story up, because what started out as a drabble took me by the hand and took me for a ride to crazytown. I just needed to cut this part off here so I could get to the other prompts.


End file.
